PD or Iota for my upgrade?

BFL13 wrote:

DryCamper11 wrote:
The control chip increases voltage, which increases current flow, until the current limit programmed into it is reached.

PowerMax (and others)converters don't do that. They kick right off in bulk at max amps while the converter voltage is fairly low, staying just ahead of rising battery voltage enough to sustain that current.
When a certain converter voltage point is reached (Threshold) then that is when both converter voltage and current are maxed, but it is just for a moment because converter voltage is then regulated , so amps taper. (goes from bulk to absorption)

AFAICT, you've pretty much described the same operation that I described, so I'm not sure what you think is different. I described how the PD gets to max current by raising voltage until it reaches max current, but I didn't say how long it takes to do that - it's only milliseconds to get to "max amps while the converter voltage is fairly low," so the PD, like the others, will "kick right off in bulk at max amps."

The PD also will "stay just ahead of rising battery voltage enough to sustain that current."

Finally, the PD will also change from max current (current limited) to voltage limited when the voltage has reached a voltage trigger point. I thought that was what I described.

There are really two basic controls in the PD design. One comes from the Unitrode chip. The other comes from the microcontroller and its programing (the "Charge Wizard").

The Unitrode has voltage and current limits and will raise the voltage until one or the other is reached. The microcontroller sets the voltage limits according to various inputs, like time, whether the user has pressed the manual override button (the "pendant") to change modes, etc.

I'm curious about what you think I posted (sorry, if if I wasn't clear) and how you think the converters differ.